PressTV says the drill will begin in January, but the Israeli announcement claims the "largest-ever" missile defense exercise will commence this spring, largely in response to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Tehran's claim that the U.S. is planning a war against Iran is not entirely implausible.

In addition to these deployments, the U.S. has been slowly building a list of grievances against Iran and has recently been drawing some lines in the sand that we reported on last month:

There is the article in Foreign Affairs by Matthew Kroenig that has everyone talking. Kroenig, an articulate and thoughtful writer apparently not given to wild extremes of opinion, makes the argument that an attack on Iran is "The Least Bad Option" and sums that reasoning up in his piece titled "Time to Attack Iran."

There is the IAEA report that systematically lays out Iran's apparent attempts to generate weapons grade radioactive material.

There is Leon Panetta saying three days ago that the U.S. will simply not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons. He told CBS News this would be "A red line," for both the U.S. and Israel.

There is the $10 million bounty now being offered for information leading to the capture of the Iran-based al-Qaida money-man Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil.

And then, perhaps most interesting in its quiet release, there is the ruling by a New York federal judge, who signed a default judgment holding the Taliban, al-Qaida, and Iran responsible for the September 11 attacks.

Judge George Daniels ruled $100 billion is owed to victims families, and that Iran continues to "provide material support and resources to al-Qaida by providing a safe haven for al-Qaida leadership and rank-and-file al-Qaida members."